6. Incentives are created by supply, demand, and the infrastructure created to communicate information about supply and demand in the world.

7. Even with advances in technology, the social infrastructure built on mutual trust still has a large influence what people know about supply and demand, or at least how they can fulfill their demand with supply, or bring their supply to demand.

8. Infrastructure, and the planning required to build it are more important than willpower.

12.The value of non financial currencies are often difficult to articulate in financial terms, and for this reason are often times undervalued.

13.Many times financial capital growth is not a net growth of capital, just a transformation of one form of capital into another. Example – a rain forest into boards, or soy fields which are converted into cheese burgers. The mental health of a population of people who are exploited to work in a factory.

14.The most important quality of growth, or change in an economy, is how that change affects human capital.

15. Growth is not a linear path through two dimensions,time and value, but a spectrum through multiple dimensions.

16. The set of behaviors, or patterns of behavior, that help us survive one environment will lead us to a new environment, where this set and pattern of behaviors, or logic, may keep us from thriving in a new environment, and may eventually kill us.

2. How reproduction and battery-filled plastic objects are related brings up lots of interesting thoughts, ranging from vibrators to the power associate with possession. Thoughts?

3. In response to #5: agreed. #6: How powerful is the communication element in defining incentives? How can we use communication to encourage positive behaviors – how can we create incentives for positive social change (#14)?

5. Re. #16. The success of humans as a species relies on our incredible adaptability to new environments (physical, social, etc). As mentioned in the happiness article you flagged.

6. From the vanity metrics page: A comment on http://www.imvu.com/ and experience (#18) – “be the person you want to be”, “have fun”, “meet people from around the world” – what limits do people put on themselves that make them think that this can’t be their true reality, and only could exist in virtual reality? What are some tools we could use to discipline ourselves to achieve our best possible true reality?

7. Regarding work, discipline and spiritual growth: I highly recommend you read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as a beautiful example of spiritual/political growth in the context of American capitalism. Also speaks of guilt, ability and responsibility.